The present invention generally relates to a system and method for tracking a patient. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system and a method for tracking patients throughout their therapy lifetime. Specifically, the system and the method of the present invention is particularly applicable for patients whose care and/or treatment may vary in location or types of treatment which may result from the changing conditions of the patient. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system and method for tracking patient history for renal patients from the initial diagnosis of the patient of chronic kidney disease (CKD) through a therapy lifetime of a patient, i.e. CKD, peritoneal dialysis (PD), hemodialysis (HD) and/or transplant. Further, the present invention relates to a system and a method for tracking, managing and/or summarizing information relating to PD and/or HD, including access placement, infections, medications and/or hospitalization.
It is, of course, generally known to track the history of a patient treated for a specific disease, ailment, condition, therapy, or the like. Usually, information regarding the patient is recorded by a healthcare professional, such as, a doctor, a nurse, or the like. Typically, paper or a chart is used for the doctor or nurse to input information regarding the patient during treatment and/or therapy. More recently, computers are implemented to record and to store information regarding a patient. The information may be input during a patient's visit or subsequently by office personnel, for example.
Typically, in the case of a patient suffering from renal disease, often the various therapies required by the patient throughout the lifetime of the patient are separately tracked but not otherwise combined. Often, information from previous therapies are necessary to completely ascertain and/or to accurately evaluate the patient, the history of therapy to the patient and to diagnose and/or advise further treatment or the like for the patient. To do this, information recorded on paper or the separate software systems must be entered into other databases or other software tools and/or re-entered by viewing the appropriate history of interest of a particular patient. Further consideration in the treatment or therapy which the patient is seeking through an appropriate physician, facility, or other healthcare technician, professional, or the like may then be necessary.
Currently, a patient may be assigned to a nephrologist or physician to obtain a specific treatment or therapy as that treatment or therapy relates to the condition of the patient. To assign a new physician to a patient currently requires manual re-assignment of the patient and/or the records associated with that patient to the extent that any records have been previously recorded and/or exist. The new physician, therefore, has no access to any treatment history in electronic format and that information must be printed and entered manually by the new physician. Moreover, often various codes are created for a particular therapy for a given patient. As a result, the physician or other healthcare professional must manually enter data which may not be easily updated if a new set of codes had been created.
More and more, various therapies are conducted by a patient in the home of the patient. However, limitations exist regarding the types of therapy and the extent of particular therapies that may be administered to the patient at home. These limitations are often due to the inability to collect information regarding the patient and the machine that may be administering therapy to the patient as well as limitations that may be communicated to/from a dialysis center, for example, to the patient within the home. Moreover, certain patients may receive therapy at the home and subsequent therapy at another location due to changes in condition of the patient. However, as set forth above, the information regarding the therapy is not often readily available or transferable with the patient. As a result, necessary information regarding the particular stage or condition of the patient and/or the therapy of the patient is often misunderstood or inadequately assessed.
Still further, physicians often lack the understanding necessary to treat a patient. As a result, patients are not identified, characterized or channeled into care pathways by the physician due to a lack of necessary understanding of the patient by the physician to effectively and/or accurately direct the same. Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) care pathways are not generally accurately tracked or evaluated particularly with respect to renal disease, hypertension, anemia, CKD education, dialysis initiation, lipid disorders, diabetes mellitus, morbidities planning, and the like. Moreover, software that provides a unified clinical and encounter summary screen is not available which often results in a failure to provide tracking of a continuum of care for renal patients within a single database.
Current existing renal-related clinical software used, for example, at dialysis centers by dialysis providers, are not simple to use, are not flexible in their reporting capabilities and are not integrateable with other renal-related clinical software. As a result, use of existing software to treat dialysis patients fails to provide continuity of care and data capture relating to patient and/or the therapy of the patient. Moreover, data that is captured is not standardized making the captured data difficult to interpret and/or transferable to other healthcare providers. Non-standardized data results in inefficient data retrieval and often excess or unnecessary data that may be input or otherwise targeted. Further, the organization of the care of the patient is, therefore, sacrificed due to an inability to track consistent information regarding patient care and therapies undergone by the patient.
A need, therefore, exists for an improved integrated tool to manage patients. More specifically, a need, exists for a system and a method for managing renal patients from CKD through PD, HD to transplant throughout the different points of clinical encounter experienced by the patient.